A Writer's Debris

2016: The Year in Review

I never thought I’d talk much about my life on this blog, but now that I’ve done it once, the floodgates have opened. So here’s more.

This is a year in review type of post that I’ve seen floating around lately. This has been an eventful year for me, and a not-too-terrible one either (excepting my growing conviction that a post-apocalyptic future is imminent). So I thought I’d tell you guys about it.

So yes. The headlines. Do comment if you have any questions. 🙂

This wasn’t too fabulous of a year literary-wise. I didn’t get much writing done, my blogging was sporadic, and I didn’t read much at all towards the end of the year buuuut:

I did meet my new favourite book of all time

It beats out Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott by a tiny margin. I also love Patti Smith’s music, so that’s doubly exciting.

I gave up on my dystopic novel

Not gonna lie, guys, it started to resemble reality too much and I realised that by the time my last ass is done with it, it may have to be published as very dull non-fiction.

I started a new novel

It’s fantasy and I’m not even close to being done with the first draft but at least the idea and beginning and loose outline are there.

I graduated

Technically, I graduated in 2015 but my convocation was in February, 2016. I got to go back to Calcutta, the city in which I attained adulthood, and the city which I will never complely get over. I got to meet my friends again, some of them after ages. And I’ve come to accept that it may have been the last time I see some of them.

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I cut my hair short.

I had longish vaguely irritating hair for about 5 years that I got massively bored of.

So I cut it off:

I completed a year at my job

This isn’t my first job on graduating, but I think of it as my first one. It reaffirmed my love for the law, and now I know that even if I choose to be a novelist, I can never give up on law completely.

I realised that I have far fewer friends than I’d imagined

Having very little time to myself made me prioritise an insane amount. And it made others prioritise over me too. It was enlightening. Hurtful, but enlightening.

My boyfriend and I got engaged

Yes! I am now freshly minus one boyfriend and plus one fiancé.

He bought me an amethyst, which is my favourite stone and surprised me with it. (Purple 4 lyf) We were both exhausted from travel and dirty and sleepy that day, but it’s still one of my favourite photos of us.

We started dating at 18 nearly 7 years ago. This was us then:

I turned 24

This has always been a nightmare age for me, the age of adulthood, because my parents had me when I was 24. It hasn’t been too bad so far though, even though I’ve done my fair share of adulting and growing up.

I have the entire series of Fantastic Beasts movies to get through before I have to grow up completely. (How good was the first one?!) Cheers to that.

So that’s been my year, a year of many firsts, of adulting, of complicated conversations and difficult decisions, of joys, of nights spent crying, of trying not to cry in court, of becoming an early to bed early to rise kinda gal, and of becoming a different person.

How has your 2016 been? Did you do anything exciting at all this year? Let me know in the comments.